I'm being stalked

Playing hookie yesterday was fun but in case you get too jealous, I did work until 10:00 last night. I went hiking again this morning and it was lovely, but I will be burning the midnight oil yet again.

I added a few miles to my total this morning with a fairly short hike. I was about half way through and thinking that this was going to be a pretty run-of-the-mill hike today and nothing much special was happening. But then.......

I met a thru-hiker. Then another, and another, and another! FOUR thru-hikers today, and one was a GIRL. They've been on the trail since Georgia and won't stop until Maine. It takes about six months. All the conversations with them were as we were passing. I guess if you're hiking 2,175 miles, you don't stop to chat with every person you meet.

So once my hike became 'special', it just kept going that way.

There was a lot of this flower. Is it mountain laurel? If you can enlarge the photo, the buds are so incredible! It doesn't smell very much, but it's gorgeous.

I finished today's section of the trail and then hiked back to where the stepping stones were installed yesterday. I sat beside this waterfall for a while. It was so cool and refreshing with a wonderful breeze. Being in places like this make me feel like the me I've forgotten about. It was absolutely perfect! And then a huge water snake zoomed by. Did I say huge? I meant HUGE! So as I was running back up the trail to my car, another snake like the one yesterday slithered across my path. SQUICK! They are so stalking me!